Someone Paid Nearly $1 Million For This Old Motorcycle

We’ve grown accustomed to seeing classic cars sell for millions. (Tens of millions, even.) But a motorcycle?

Just about: someone just paid $929,000 for a classic bike at Bonhams’ auction in Las Vegas this weekend.

The motorcycle in question is a 1951 Vincent Black Lightning, one of only 30 made – of which just 19 matching-number examples are still known to exist.

The Lightning was based on the legendary Black Shadow – regarded as the world’s first superbike. The Shadow had famously outpaced a Jaguar XJ120 (then the fastest car you could buy) at 122 mph to become the fastest thing on wheels.

The Black Lightning took things even further, fitted with an even more powerful engine (up from 55 hp to 70) and stripped down (from 458 pounds to 360 dry). Rollie Free famously rode one to set the land speed record at Bonneville in 1948, wearing only a bathing suit to save weight.

This particular example is the one that Tony McAlpine ordered special and brought to Australia. There Jack Ehret it rode to a two-way average of 141.5 miles per hour, setting a new record in Australia and taking it to numerous subsequent wins. Ehret kept it for nearly half a century, making him one of only four owners in the bike’s long history.

“Rollie Free and Marty Dickerson, both legends in the Vincent universe, knew of this motorcycle and Ehret’s acclaim,” said Bonhams’ Ben Walker. “After the ‘Bathing Suit Bike’ ridden by Free, the Ehret bike is likely the most important Black Lightning in existence and is one of the world’s most desirable machines.”

With all that history behind it, it’s no wonder the Vincent attracted so much attention from collectors, but we’re not sure anyone could have expected it to sell for that much. Bonhams reports this as the highest price ever paid for a motorcycle at auction, though that would discount the “Captain America” 1976 Harley-Davidson FLH custom that Peter Fonda rode in Easy Rider and which sold in October 2014 for £836,337.

That was equivalent to $1.35 million at the time, or $1.18 million at today’s rate – but either way, it’s more than the still-remarkable $929k paid for this Vincent.